If You Give A Mouse A Cookie
by Alactricity
Summary: Sadie invites her best mates Emma and Liz over for a sleepover when Liz finds a picture of Carter. Of course, a game of 20 questions ensues.


A/N: I loved the book the second it came out and I devoured it. Now I'm sad and want more. So, naturally, I came to the fanfiction site to read other peoples work of arts about Carter and Sadie only to find they don't even have a section for the book! Despair! I e-mailed them and three days later, here it is! Now let's get cracking people - I want some Kane Chronicles fanfiction to read before too long! :P

But more about this piece, yes? If you've ever read the children's book 'If You Give A Mouse A Cookie' then you'll understand the title better after you read this. If you try and ignore the crap writing, I think you may be able to enjoy.

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie

_"If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk."_

I invited my best mates Liz and Emma over for a sleepover. Usually we all go to Emma's house because it's huge and has a pool, but her parents have got a bout of the flu and it's too cold to go swimming this time of year. Liz's parents would make us go to bed at 10, which we absolutely cannot do on this Saturday night, or any Saturday night, so we avoid her house like Liz avoids school work.

So it's my house by default - my two-story little matchbox house, with the shrine for my Mum in the downstairs closet and my Grandpa sitting on the couch watching Cricket and yelling at the telly all night.

Don't think I didn't warn them, because I did.

"If you two are seriously suggesting what I think you are, you've lost it. Haven't you heard anything I've told you about my house?"

Emma just shrugged and grinned. "It can't be that bad, Sadie. Besides, we haven't broken our streak in six months!"

"Oh it's bad," I assured them. "You'll be emotionally scarred for life!"

"I already am," Emma stated at the same time Liz blurted "We should play laser tag!"

I knew I wasn't going to be able to change their minds, partly because Emma is very insistent about our sleepovers and partly because as soon as Liz said the words 'laser tag' I knew I wanted to play too.

"Alright," I agreed cautiously. "Come over at six - but don't blame me if you leave the house even loonier then when you entered."

And on that cheery note the school bell rang and we three went our separate ways.

Twenty four and some hours later, I was starting to regret ever agreeing in the first place. See, it's not that I'm ashamed of my grandparents or anything, but my mates have never been over before and I don't think they took me seriously when I told them about the shrine in the closet or my evil cat, Muffin.

I heard the rumble of a car engine outside, but there wasn't a knock on the door until the same exact moment the old grandfather clock in my living room chimed six times, so I knew it must be Emma, perfectly on time, as always.

"Hey Sadie," Emma said once I opened the door, a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. Her straight, cinnamon brown hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail. "Liz here yet?"

I snorted. "What do you think?"

While Emma is always on time for everything, organized and responsible, Liz usually comes either two hours late or two hours early, traipsing into the house without even knocking on the door, announcing that she brought chocolate and that we should all dig in.

My mates are barmy.

I gave Emma a quick tour of the house, carefully avoiding The Shrine and staying in the living room no longer than necessary.

"Where's the mummy?" She asked sarcastically.

"What?"

"Well, from the way you described it, I thought I was going to be walking into a haunted mansion and that mummies were going to pop out of the closets to 'devour my flesh'."

"Don't be silly," I retorted. "Everybody knows it's the zombies that eat your flesh."

-x-

After an intense stare down, some peanut butter cookies, yelling at the Telly with my Grandpa and chasing Muffin around the house because she nicked Emma's socks, the front door opened and I knew it was either Liz or a burglar.

"Sadie! Emma! I've got chocolate!"

Yup. It was Liz.

I had to explain to my Grandma that Liz was in fact a friend and that yes, I did invite her over, before she went back to doing her Sudoku puzzles.

"Do you always have to do that?" I complained to her.

"Do what?" Liz questioned, seemingly ignorant, but Emma and I knew better. Her blond hair was looking even messier than usual - some of it was up, and some of it was down, but all of it was curly.

"Uh-huh. Did you bring the good chocolate?"

"Of course I did! I also brought flashlights."

"Um... why exactly?" Emma wanted to know.

"For our game of laser tag in the dark, duh. We can't be tripping over each other all night."

"She has a point," I informed Emma seriously.

"You're just saying that because she has the chocolate," Emma grumbled.

I didn't bother to deny her.

-x-

"That was the best game of laser tag. Ever." Liz stated matter-of-factly, though her face was flushed red and she kept grinning at Muffin, who growled back.

"Agreed."

"It wasn't really laser tag though, was it?" Emma pointed out. "It was more like... tag with flashlights."

"Don't ruin all the fun!" I said sourly. "Logic doesn't - hey! Liz! What are you doing?"

Liz was rifling through my drawers, picking up anything that didn't interest her and throwing it onto my bed. "Lookin' for stuff."

"What stuff?"

"I dunno yet." She held up a photo and squinted at it, then turned to me with a raised eyebrow. "Who's this?"

I looked closer, even though I was pretty sure I knew who was in that picture already.

I swallowed thickly. "My brother."

And before you go thinking I go to sleep every night looking at a picture of my brother or something, I thought I lost that thing months ago. Dad gave it to me last visiting day, though what he thought I wanted with a picture of Carter I don't know. Maybe he thought I would need it if I ever had to throw up or get sick, in which case it would have worked perfectly.

"You have a brother?"

Emma and I both rolled our eyes.

"Yup."

"What's his name?"

"Carter."

"How old is he?"

"Um..." I did the maths in my head. "Thirteen."

"Where is he now?"

"What is this? 20 questions?"

"Oh! I love that game! Let's play it. How many questions did I ask before?"

I groaned.

"Well, that depends on whether or not you're including the 'who's this' question and when you asked how many questions you've asked." Emma reasoned. "If so, six. If not, then four."

"I'm going with four so I can ask more questions," Liz said gleefully. "Where is he now?"

"I don't like this game."

"Where is he now?" She pressed on.

"Probably somewhere in Egypt with my dad."

"Wu-oah! Why in Egypt?"

"My dad does stuff with tombs there."

"Does he have a girlfriend?"

"Ewwww, gross." I made gagging noises that really weren't all that exaggerated. "I have no idea, but probably not. He's boring. Why?"

"Cause he's hot."

I actually did throw up a little in my mouth that time.

"Liz! Gross!"

"What? It's true. Right Em?"

Emma scrutinized the picture. "In a cutesy kind of way, yeah." I could tell she was trying to be nonchalant about it, but her cheeks still had a rosy glow to them.

"That doesn't even make sense!" I objected, thoroughly disgusted.

"Does so." Liz stuck her tongue out at me.

"Could we please stop talking about whether or not my brother is hot? I'm feeling like I'm going to throw up, and I'll be sure to throw up all over YOU, Liz, for starting this whole thing."

"But I still have more questions!" Liz pouted.

"I veto them because I'm the Queen of this house and because I have all of your chocolate, which I will so gladly eat if you don't want it..." I trailed off suggestively.

"No fair!"

"Life's not fair."

"You piss me off, Sadie Kane," Liz mumbled dejectedly, making a grab for her chocolate. I snatched my hand away.

"Well... it's better to be pissed _off _than pissed _on,_ yeah?"

There was a moment of silence.

"Do you think your brother has ever pissed on someone?"

I smacked my head against the desk in frustration while Emma fell over laughing. I glared at her, which just made her laugh some more.

My mates are barmy.

_"When you give him the milk, he'll probably ask you for a straw."_

-x-

In all honesty, this was kind of rushed, but I think I like it. Just a short, fluffy little one-shot. But don't be surprised if one day it just disappears... :P

This idea came from the beginning of the book, where Sadie mentions that her mates thought Carter was hot after they saw a picture of him, which got me wondering to _why _exactly they were looking at a picture of him.

Don't forget to hit that pretty little review button on the way out!


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